Dingell, Alito, Barney Frank, Olympia Snowe, J.D. Power

Debbie Dingell, wife of Congressman
John Dingell, Michigan Democrat, was reunited last night with
Hydeia Broadbent, a thriving woman in her late 20s.

What made the scene remarkable was that the women first met
when Broadbent was a child with AIDS and not expected to live.

The occasion was the 24th annual congressional gala for the
Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health, held at the
Liaison Hotel. The Children’s Inn offers housing and support for
families like Broadbent’s while their children are being treated
at the NIH.

Senator Frank Lautenberg, New Jersey Democrat, and Senator
Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican, were among the lawmakers who
turned out. The mistress of ceremonies was author Cokie Roberts,
who called the event “the last bastion of bipartisanship.”

Democratic congressmen Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Mark Critz of Pennsylvania were also
present, as was Martha-Ann Alito, wife of Supreme Court Justice
Samuel Alito.

The gala was sponsored by corporate partners Merck (MRK) & Co.,
and Sanofi (SAN) U.S., and the trade group Pharmaceutical Research &
Manufacturers of America.

Blunt sat opposite Kenneth Frazier, the chairman and chief
executive officer of Merck, which has given about $15 million to
Children’s Inn since its founding in 1990.

Keeping Up

An emotional Broadbent thanked the staff and supporters of
the Inn and presented the evening’s honorees, physicians Anthony
Fauci and Roy Vagelos, with award plates crafted by children at
the Inn.

“I keep up with them on Facebook,” she said of the
children she met at the facility.

“I wake up every morning excited,” said NIH Director
Francis Collins about the strides in pediatric medical research.

The event began with a rooftop poolside reception and ended
with a three-course meal of goat-cheese salad, sea bass and
berry cheesecake.

Awards Given

Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, Republicans from
Maine, attended a luncheon yesterday in honor of former First
Lady Laura Bush.

Wearing a fitted aubergine dress, Bush accepted the 2012
Alice Award from the Sewall-Belmont House & Museum for her
advocacy of women, particularly in Afghanistan. Alice Paul was a
suffragist and a founder of the National Woman’s Party.

J. David Power III, the founder of marketing information
firm J.D. Power and Associates, received the Lone Sailor Award
from the U.S. Navy Memorial on Tuesday night.

“For the last 40 years, I’ve been giving out awards. This
is a new thing,” Power, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran, said at the
National Building Museum.

Billionaire John Paul DeJoria, a co-founder of Patron
Spirits Co., discovered Patron cocktails were being served at
the VIP reception.

“I gotta thank them,” he said, referring to the
bartenders and making his trademark peace sign while mugging for
the cameras.

DeJoria was honored as a Navy veteran. “We had a blast,”
he said, adding that it was in the Navy where he learned about
teamwork and cultivated his philosophy of life, “Success
unshared is failure.”

After Nuns

Political satirist and Marine Mark Russell and Vietnam
prisoner of war Everett Alvarez, Jr. were also presented with
the Lone Sailor Award, given to Sea Services veterans who have
demonstrated core military values in their careers.

Russell said his time in the Marines was easier than
parochial school: “After the nuns, boot camp was a piece of
cake.”

Author Bob Woodward will be honored Friday night at the
National Press Club’s 40th annual Fourth Estate Award Dinner for
lifetime achievement in journalism. Among the toasters will be
Donald Graham, chief executive and chairman of the Washington
Post.

Proceeds benefit the National Press Club Journalism
Institute, which promotes press freedom and provides journalism
scholarships.

(Stephanie Green is a writer and photographer for Muse, the
arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. Any opinions
expressed are her own.)